World War I took place from 1914 to 1918, a world war in which the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire were mainly composed of the Allied Powers, and the Entente Powers composed of Britain, France, and Tsars** were mainly in Europe. In 1917, during the stalemate between the two sides, the United States sent more than 1 million troops to Europe, thus assisting Britain and France to defeat the German and Austrian empires as a new force.
The Great Depression of the twenties and thirties laid the groundwork.
What were Europe and the United States doing in the build-up to World War I?
Before World War I, Europe was dominated by the British Empire, the Third Kingdom, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, and before 1900, various European countries had completed the transition from capitalist primitive accumulation to imperialism. At this time, the European empires were economically developed at home, but the development of various countries was balanced, Britain and Germany were relatively developed, and France, Austria, and Russia were relatively backward, and they were busy occupying colonies abroad to divide up the world and obtain cheap resources and labor. Therefore, there was serious competition between them, forming a competitive contradiction between Britain and Germany when exporting products to the world, and in the Middle East and India, Germany launched a challenge to Britain to redivide Germany in colonial redivision; the contradictions between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire over the Balkans; The hatred accumulated between France and Germany in the Franco-Prussian War, and the contradictions between Germany and North Africa. From 1880 to 1914, the above three pairs of contradictions continued to accumulate, and there were continuous skirmishes, forming a confrontation between the Entente powers of Britain, France, and Russia, and the allies of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman allies. Eventually, after the First War in the Balkans, a powder keg, the Second Balkan War was sparked over the partition of Turkey, which had become independent from the Ottoman Empire. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sofia were shooting dead by Serbian nationalist Gavrijo Princip while visiting Sarajevo. The Entente and the Allied bloc took advantage of this contingency when Germany instigated the Ottoman Empire to declare war on Serbia on July 28, and World War I officially began.
Before World War I, the United States completed the transformation from an agricultural country to an industrial country in the 19th century, in 1876 Edison founded the "Invention Factory", in 1894, the United States surpassed Britain in industrial output, jumping to the first place in the world, and in 1900 General Electric established an experimental station. Before World War I, the United States had already completed the Second Industrial Revolution. In 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out, and the United States defeated Spain, thus acquiring the original Spanish kingdom's colonies in Central and North America, the Philippines, **Puerto Rico and other colonies, so that the United States expanded its overseas colonies rapidly. In the first 10 years of the 20th century, under the leadership of the 26th Theodore Roosevelt, the "progressivist" movement was launched, which achieved rapid economic development and began the precedent of capitalist reform, which was very different from the development of European capitalism to imperialism, making the social fairness more equitable, and the "Sherman Antitrust Law" was formed more strictly on the control of capital, which did not provide the right direction for the development of capitalism in the United States.
In the early stages of World War I, the United States made war money
After the outbreak of World War I, the 28th ** Wilson of the United States declared neutrality, because in the early stage of the outbreak of World War I, the relationship between European empires was complicated, and the United States could not see clearly, so it chose to wait and see neutrally in the early stage; At the same time, the composition of the residents of the United States also has a lot to do with it, the United States is an emigrate, among the 98 million people, there are more than 9 million German immigrants, if the early declaration of war may cause domestic chaos; The more important reason is that the United States has obtained benefits from the Spanish-American War, which has made it clearly see the essence of the war that can obtain the greatest benefits, and export ** and food to all parties in the war, so as to obtain the maximum benefits. Therefore, the United States remained neutral until 1917, and at the same time sent **, medicine and food to the Entente and the Central Powers, obtaining high profits, and maximizing domestic production efficiency at this time. In the early stage of World War I, manufacturers such as Corning, General Electric, and Hotchkiss sent large quantities of guns, rockets, missiles, bombs, grenades, and cannons to Europe, forming the American military-industrial complex. Since the main battlefield of World War I was in Europe, a large amount of European industrial capital flowed to the United States during this period, and the United States completed domestic infrastructure construction in the early stage of World War I, such as railways, and in 1916, the railway mileage of the United States reached 4060,000 kilometers, covering almost every corner of the United States; During this period, the United States established a strong ocean-going shipping fleet and port infrastructure along the east and west coastlines, forming a strong maritime transportation capacity. In 1900, the annual production of automobiles in the United States was only 4,000, and by 1914 the production of automobiles had risen to 570,000. in terms of car ownership; On the financial side, the United States borrowed from both the Entente and the Central Powers, and by the end of World War I, Britain owed the United States $4.1 billion. At the end of World War I, the United States** had 40% of the world's reserves. It can be seen how much money the United States made from the war in the early stage of World War I!
In the last year of World War I, the United States entered the war with a new force and reaped the fruits of victory
However, due to the success of the February Revolution in 1917 and the fall of the Tsarist Romanov Dynasty, the Russian Provisional Army, composed of capitalist and socialist organizations, continued to participate in the war, but was defeated by the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, and the pressure on the German and Austrian Eastern Front was sharply reduced, so they concentrated their forces to launch a fierce attack on the French Third Republic, and the German army had already approached the city of Paris. At this time, Wilson** was in consideration of the traditional relationship between Britain and France, and was also worried that after the German Empire completely occupied Western Europe, it would form a strong pressure and competitiveness on the United States, so he declared war on the Allies on April 2, 1917, and at the same time sent a temporary expeditionary force of more than 2 million to Europe to join the war against Germany, but at the beginning of the American army suffered heavy losses, and in early 1918, the United States sent more than 1 million expeditionary forces again, this time the combat power was much higher than the first batch. At the same time, the United States stopped supporting the Entente's **, ammunition, etc., in the war from March to July, the German army made strategic mistakes and rashly attacked on a large scale, the domestic economy collapsed during the long-term war, and the shortage of war materials led to the loss of more than 1 million soldiers, and in the second battle of the Marne in August, the German army was even more defeated, so as to quickly disintegrate and retreat to Germany. On 4 October, German Chancellor Max von Baden sent a note to Wilson** requesting an armistice; On October 31, the Ottoman Empire surrendered; On 3 November, Austria-Hungary surrendered. On November 11, 1918, Germany signed the Armistice Agreement at Compiègne Forest, officially ending World War I.
Through World War I, the United States stood at the highest point of human morality and began to move to the center of the world stage. The United States established the status of the world economic center in World War I, and capital and capital flowed to the United States, helping the United States to complete a national infrastructure construction improvement and upgrading, and at the same time forming a powerful ocean-going transportation force and escort fleet, laying the foundation for maritime hegemony in the later period. Through World War I, the United States also began to walk in the forefront of the world in scientific and technological development, especially military equipment, which laid the foundation for the United States to lead in World War II. However, due to the maximization of production efficiency and the frenzied expansion of investment in the United States during World War I, it also led to overproduction and financial crises, thus laying the groundwork for the Great Depression of the twenties and thirties of the 20th century.
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